Fani Kayode

Two former Ministers for Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode and Babalola Borisade were on Wednesday remanded in prison custody by an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court. They were arraigned on charges of forgery, conspiracy and misappropriation of N19.5bn belonging to the Federal Government.

They are to remain at the Kuje prisons, Abuja, till Friday when Chief Magistrate Lamido Kadiri, will rule on their applications for bail.

Kadiri also ordered them to file formal applications for bail.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission which arraigned the two ex-ministers and Iyayi, told the court it had sent its operatives abroad in furtherance of investigations on the award of a contract to upgrade facilities at four airports in the country.

EFCC’s lawyer, Mr. Steve Odiashe, who opposed their oral applications for bail, said that releasing them could jeopardise investigation into the (mis)management of the N19.5n Aviation Intervention Fund.

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Shortly after the charge sheets were read to them, they pleaded not guilty and immediately requested for bail through their counsel.

The counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Steve Odiashe, had prayed the court to order that the suspects, who were arrested within the precints of the National Assembly on Monday be remanded in EFCC custody.

He said the order was neccessary to enable the anti-graft agency conclude its investigations and formally prefer charges against them.

Lawyer to Fani-Kayode, Mr. Kingsley Osuh, had in an oral application for bail told the court that the accused persons should be released on bail since there were “no material evidence” to rely on to deny them bail.

Osuh said, “There is no document before the court, there is no prima facie case, in the absence of the documents, it is settled law, as laid down by the Supreme Court, that an application for bail involves the exercise of the court’s discretion. As your Lordship is aware, such discretion cannot be exercised in a vacuum.

“There must be documents on which the court will rely on to say that there is a strong case against the accused persons and that is enough to keep them one second longer in detention. In this case, the court can exercise its discretion against the EFCC and uphold the constitutional rights of Nigerians.”

Fani-Kayode was cited in the First Information Report as the first accused person.

Lawyer to Borishade, Mr. Bankole Akomolafe, also made a similar application.

Akomolafe, who is the head of Chief Afe Babalola’s Chambers in Abuja said, “We have not been served with any charge sheet and don’t even know how to refer to him.

“We are asking the court to grant them bail on most liberal terms as the constitution presumes accused persons innocent until proven guilty.

“They were arrested on Monday and have been in detention since then; the granting of bail is at the discretion of the court and that discretion should be exercised judiciously and judicially bearing in mind the nature of the offence, and the fact that the accused persons had on their on volition decided to honour invitations by the Senate.”

Akomolafe also urged the court to take into cognisance the fact that the summary of the evidence, which would be used against the accused persons, was not before the court.

He said, “No reasonable person would doubt the fact that they were invited and they responded, they have said that they are not guilty of the offence, and they are like goldfish, which has no hiding place, as they are known by every responsible citizen of this country.

“They would not interfere with investigations as they are no longer at the ministry and have no access to files.”

Borishade was listed in the FIR as the second accused person.

Mr. Paul Eshimomoh, counsel for Iyayi adopted the arguments of his colleagues and added that going by the FIR, there was nothing showing any element of guilt against the accused persons.

He pointed out that the onus was on the prosecution to show the criminal antecedents of the accused persons.

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Responding, Odiashe said the case was a high profile one that had taken operatives of the commission outside the country for investigations.

He said, “We are opposing vehemently the applications for bail. The operatives of the EFCC are both within and outside the country investigating the matter. The offences are not ordinarily bailable as they involve forgery that carries a sentence of 14 years on conviction.

“We are saying that by virtue of their past performances that they would interfere with investigations. We brought them with an FIR in line with Section 117 [2] of the Criminal Procedure Code, which does not entail us to produce witness statements.

“It would be therefore premature to start asking for a prima facie case. We ask the court to, in the interest of justice and in line with Section 329, decline bail at this stage. The court should refuse bail to enable us further our investigations, they have placed nothing before the court to show why they should be admitted to bail.”

Meanwhile, two ministers — Dr. Shamshudeen Usman (Finance) and Chief Micheal Aondoakaa ( Justice) — as well as the Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo, are to appear before the Senate Committee on Aviation on Thursday (today).

Usman, Aondoakaa and Dankwambo, who were initially billed to testify before the committee on Monday, are to shed light on the warehousing of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement Fund domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

A statement from the committee’s Clerk, Mr. Victor Aborisade, said Aondoakaa was expected to speak on the legal impediments, if any, as to why the committee’s recommendation in January that the management of the BASA account be transferred to NCAA was not implemented.

 

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